Insulated eco-friendly meal box

ABSTRACT

An insulated eco-friendly meal box includes a box body, an accommodating chamber formed on the box body and having an upwardly facing opening, a cover body rotatably installed to an edge of the box body and capable of covering the accommodating chamber, a latch disposed on a sidewall of the cover body, a latch groove formed on a sidewall of the box body and configured to be corresponsive to the latch, and the box body and the cover body being made of a meal box paper, and the meal box paper being formed by sequentially stacking a first cardboard layer, a corrugated paper and a second cardboard layer, and a first waterproof layer being formed on a surface of the second cardboard layer and disposed between an inner surface of the accommodating chamber and a lower surface of the cover body.

The current application claims foreign priorities to the following four (4) foreign applications.

1. 201510239229.5 filed on May 11, 2015 in China

2. 201520300086.X filed on May 11, 2015 in China

3. 201520249342.7 filed on Apr. 21, 2015 in China

4. 201510190252.X filed on Apr. 21, 2015 in China.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The technical field relates to meal boxes, in particular to an insulated eco-friendly meal box.

BACKGROUND

With the development of economic construction, we have an increasingly faster pace of life, and fast food has been widely accepted, and the consumption of disposable fast food packaging boxes increases with time. At present, there are plastic and paper fast food boxes available in the market.

There are two main types of disposable meal boxes made of plastics, respectively: polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS), and both of them are nontoxic, tasteless and odorless, and PP is softer than PS and generally used at a temperature from −6 degrees C. to +120 degrees C., and thus PP is especially suitable for containing hot meals. PP may be heated in a microwave oven or even steamed in a steam cabinet. The temperature of using modified PP may be controlled within a temperature range from −18 degrees C. to +110 degrees C., and the meal box made of modified PP may be heated to 100 degrees C. and frozen in a freezer. The modified PP with the advantage of a low cost may be used repeatedly and cannot be degenerated easily, and thus causing a severe pollution to the environment. Such pollution has a long-term effect which cannot be eliminated easily and becomes a serious problem to the environmental protection in Taiwan.

In the meantime, the present existing fast food boxes made of paper generally use 300˜350 g of bleached sulfate pulp cardboard as the raw material and the cardboard is manufactured by the manufacturing processes such as die bonding or die-pressing and shaping by the stamping process similar to the sheet processing. Such fast food box has the disadvantages of high cost, low structural strength, and being folded, bent, deformed or even damaged easily when its use. In addition, such fast food box does not have the insulation function, so that it is inconvenient to use.

SUMMARY

In view of the aforementioned drawbacks of the prior art, it is a primary objective of this disclosure to provide an insulated eco-friendly meal box with high structural strength and excellent insulation effect.

To achieve the aforementioned objective, this disclosure provides an insulated eco-friendly meal box, comprising a box body, an accommodating chamber formed on the box body and having an upwardly facing opening, an edge of the box body rotatably installed to a cover body capable of covering the accommodating chamber, a latch disposed on a sidewall of the cover body, a latch groove formed on a sidewall of the box body and configured to be corresponsive to the latch, and the box body and the cover body being made of a meal box paper, and the meal box paper being formed by sequentially stacking a first cardboard layer, a corrugated paper and a second cardboard layer, and a first waterproof layer being formed on a surface of the second cardboard layer and disposed between an inner surface of the accommodating chamber and a lower surface of the cover body.

Further, the first cardboard layer and/or the second cardboard layer are made of coated paper.

Further, the waterproof layer is a PE lamination layer.

Further, the box body and the cover body are formed by bending the same meal box paper.

Further, a crease mark is formed at a junction of the box body and the cover body.

Further, the corrugated paper is an F-shaped corrugated paper.

Further, a second waterproof layer is formed on a surface of the first cardboard layer.

Further, the second waterproof layer is a PE lamination layer.

The insulated eco-friendly meal box has the advantages of high structural strength, high resistance to deformation and damage during its use, excellent insulation effect to the food contained in the meal box. In addition, the meal box is eco-friendly and degraded easily.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the structure of an insulated eco-friendly meal box in accordance with this disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the structure of an insulated eco-friendly meal box in accordance with a first preferred embodiment of this disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the structure of an insulated eco-friendly meal box in accordance with a second preferred embodiment of this disclosure; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of expanding insulated eco-friendly meal box of this disclosure.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention will become clearer in light of the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment of this invention described in connection with the drawings. It is intended that the embodiments and drawings disclosed herein are to be considered illustrative rather than restrictive.

With reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 4 for an insulated eco-friendly meal box in accordance with a preferred embodiment of this disclosure, the insulated eco-friendly meal box comprises a box body 1, having an accommodating chamber 11 with an upwardly facing opening and formed on the box body 1, a cover body 2 rotatably installed to an edge of the box body 1 and capable of covering the accommodating chamber, a latch 21 disposed on a sidewall of the cover body 2, and a latch groove 12 formed on a sidewall of the box body 1 and configured to be corresponsive to the latch 21. When the cover body is covered, the latch 21 is latched into the latch groove 12. The box body 1 and the cover body 2 are made of a meal box paper, and the meal box paper is formed by sequentially stacking a first cardboard layer 31, a corrugated paper 32 and a second cardboard layer 33, wherein a first waterproof layer 34 is formed on a surface of the second cardboard layer 33, and disposed between an inner surface of the accommodating chamber and a lower surface of the cover body. In other words, the first waterproof layer 34 is disposed on an inner surface of the meal box. In this embodiment, the first cardboard layer 31 and/or the second cardboard layer 33 are made of food-graded coated paper, and preferably both first cardboard layer 31 and second cardboard layer 33 are made of the food-graded coated paper, and the first waterproof layer 34 is a PE lamination layer, and the corrugated paper 32 is an F-shaped corrugated paper. In this embodiment, the box body 1 and the cover body 2 are formed by bending the same meal box paper, and a rectangular meal box paper is folded into a first part and a second part, and then an edge of the first part is folded and bent towards a side of the waterproof layer to form the cover body. In the meantime, an edge of the second part is folded and bent towards a side of the waterproof layer to form the box body, while the PE lamination layer is being melted at a high temperature to provide viscosity, so as to stick the folded and bent parts as a whole and complete the manufacture. To enhance the overall strength, a reinforcing rib is folded on the box body and the cover body. In the meantime, a crease mark is formed at a junction of the box body 1 and the cover body 2. In this embodiment, the meal box paper is a single sided lamination, and the lamination layer is formed on an inner surface of the meal box.

With reference to FIGS. 1, 3 and 4 for a second preferred embodiment of this disclosure, the meal box paper is a double sided lamination. In other words, both inner and outer surfaces of the meal box are laminated waterproof layer. In this embodiment, the meal box paper is formed by sequentially stacking a first cardboard layer 31, a corrugated paper 32 and a second cardboard layer 33. In the meantime, a first waterproof layer 34 is formed on a surface of the second cardboard layer 33, and a second waterproof layer 35 is formed on a surface of the first cardboard layer 31. In other words, the meal box paper is formed by sequentially stacking the second waterproof layer 35, the first cardboard layer 31, the corrugated paper 32, the second cardboard layer 33 and the first waterproof layer 34. Therefore, the meal box made of the meal box paper has waterproof layers on both inner and outer surfaces. In this embodiment, the first cardboard layer 31 and/or the second cardboard layer 33 are made of food-graded coated paper; preferably, both first cardboard layer 31 and second cardboard layer 33 are made of food-graded coated paper, and both first waterproof layer 34 and second waterproof layer 35 are lamination layers, and the corrugated paper 32 is an F-shaped corrugated paper.

The manufacturing procedure of the meal box is described briefly below:

A. Use a mold to cut a single-layer laminated meal box paper or a double-layer laminated meal box paper into a meal box paper blank, wherein the paper blank has the box body and the cover body thereon.

B. Send the meal box paper blank into a steam chamber to allow the surfaces of the meal box paper blank to adsorb steam and soften.

C. Remove the meal box paper blank, and fold it into a box body and a cover body. If the meal box paper is a single-layer lamination paper, the lamination layer will be arranged on the inner surface of the meal box.

D. Use a mold for hot-pressing molding. Since the PE lamination layer has viscosity after being melted by heat, therefore it can serve as an adhesive in the hot pressing process. During the hot-pressing process, convex/concave strengthened surfaces are pressed and formed on the box body or the cover body to enhance the structural strength of the meal box.

E. Remove and cool the meal box, after the hot-pressing process completes. Finally, test the shape and surface moisture of the meal box to determine whether or not it is passed.

The insulated eco-friendly meal box of this disclosure has the advantages of high structural strength, high resistance to deformation and damage during its use, excellent insulation effect to the food contained in the meal box. In addition, the meal box is eco-friendly and degraded easily.

In summation of the description above, this disclosure improves over the prior art, and is thus duly filed for patent application. While this disclosure has been described by means of specific embodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made thereto by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this disclosure set forth in the claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. An insulated eco-friendly meal box, comprising a box body, an accommodating chamber formed on the box body and having an upwardly facing opening, an edge of the box body rotatably installed to a cover body capable of covering the accommodating chamber, a latch disposed on a sidewall of the cover body, a latch groove formed on a sidewall of the box body and configured to be corresponsive to the latch, and the box body and the cover body being made of a meal box paper, and the meal box paper being formed by sequentially stacking a first cardboard layer, a corrugated paper and a second cardboard layer, and a first waterproof layer being formed on a surface of the second cardboard layer and disposed between an inner surface of the accommodating chamber and a lower surface of the cover body.
 2. The insulated eco-friendly meal box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first cardboard layer and/or the second cardboard layer are made of coated paper.
 3. The insulated eco-friendly meal box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first waterproof layer is a PE lamination layer.
 4. The insulated eco-friendly meal box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the box body and the cover body are formed by bending the same meal box paper.
 5. The insulated eco-friendly meal box as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a crease mark formed at a junction of the box body and the cover body.
 6. The insulated eco-friendly meal box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the corrugated paper is an F-shaped corrugated paper.
 7. The insulated eco-friendly meal box as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first cardboard layer has a second waterproof layer formed on a surface thereof.
 8. The insulated eco-friendly meal box as claimed in claim 7, wherein the second waterproof layer is a PE lamination layer. 